1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to a semiconductor processing, more specifically, for low temperature aerosol deposition of a plasma resistive layer on semiconductor processing chamber components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor processing involves a number of different chemical and physical processes whereby minute integrated circuits are created on a substrate. Layers of materials which make up the integrated circuit are created by chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, epitaxial growth, and the like. Some of the layers of material are patterned using photoresist masks and wet or dry etching techniques. The substrate utilized to form integrated circuits may be silicon, gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, glass, or other appropriate material.
A typical semiconductor processing chamber includes a chamber body defining a process zone, a gas distribution assembly adapted to supply a gas from a gas supply into the process zone, a gas energizer, e.g., a plasma generator, utilized to energize the process gas to process a substrate positioned on a substrate support assembly, and a gas exhaust. During plasma processing, the energized gas is often comprised of highly corrosive species which etches and erodes exposed portions of the processing chamber components. Eroded chamber components may accelerate the disassembly of the component parts. Attack from corrosive species also reduces the lifespan of the chamber components. Additionally, flakes of the eroded parts of the chamber component may become a source of particulate contamination during substrate processing. Therefore, promoting plasma corrosion resistance of chamber components is desirable to increase service life of the processing chamber, reduce chamber downtime, reduce maintenance frequency and to improve substrate yields.
Conventionally, the processing chamber surface may be anodized to provide a degree of protection from the corrosive processing environment. Alternatively, dielectric and/or ceramic layers, such as aluminum nitride (AlN), aluminum oxide (Al2O3), silicon oxide (SiO2), or silicon carbide (SiC), may be coated and/or formed on the component surface to promote the surface protection of the chamber components. Several conventional methods utilized to coat the protective layer include physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), sputtering, plasma spraying coating, aerosol deposition (AD) and the like. The conventional coating techniques typically employ a substantially high temperature to provide sufficient thermal energy to sputter, deposit or eject a desired amount of materials on a component surface. However, high temperature processing may deteriorate surface properties or adversely modify the microstructure of the coated surface, resulting in a coated layer having poor uniformity and/or surface cracks due to temperature elevation. Furthermore, if the coated layer or the underlying surface has microcracks or the coatings are not applied uniformly, the component surface may deteriorate over time and eventually expose the underlying component surface to corrosive plasma attack.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved method for coating and/or forming a robust plasma resistive layer on surfaces of chamber components.